Film Festival Provides Ob-Gyn Year in Review

The Annual Meeting Film Festival always gives the audience a good idea of the year in obstetrics and gynecology.

Organizers have selected 16 videos for this year’s session, which takes place from 2 – 5 pm today in Ballroom 20BC, with an encore showing from 8:30 – 11:30 am Monday at the same location. Each video generally runs from six to twelve minutes. The atmosphere is relaxed, with popcorn available. The producers will be available for questions after each presentation.

Lauren D. Demosthenes, MD

Lauren D. Demosthenes, MD, assistant clinical professor, department of obstetrics and gynecology, Greenville Health System in South Carolina and a member of the Committee on Scientific Program that oversees the festival, said that the committee reviewed 89 video submissions this year, up from last year’s record of 80, and 56 in 2015.

Dr. Demosthenes said that, while many of the offerings continue to be in the mainstream of gynecology, obstetrics, and general office practices, more and more videos cover areas such as patient safety, caring for the caregiver, and liability management.

“Some are things that you just don’t typically think of as the mainstream of ob-gyn, which is kind of exciting,” she said. “And we tried to pick some films that represent things that are outside the generic scope of practice.”

The selection committee did see some trends in submissions this year. A few videos covered removal of the Essure® sterilization device. Another popular video topic was bilateral salpingectomy and the prevention of ovarian cancer.

Dr. Demosthenes said that the committee could tell that those two subjects had become hot topics during the past year and should be included in the festival.

“We know those are novel and timely and will appeal to people in the audience because providers are also struggling with those topics,” she said.

Fellow Committee on Scientific Program member Jason C. Massengill, MD, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences practicing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, praised the overall quality of the submissions this year.

Dr. Massengill recommended attendees read the abstract for each video — available in the final program — before coming to the session to learn more. Attendees can check out the running order, and those who can’t stay for three hours can at least watch the videos that have the most relevance to their practices.

Winners were selected on the quality of the video, including production and education values. Dr. Massengill said that the submitting physicians are taking advantage of advances in technology.

“Now that we have so many minimally invasive techniques, procedures are a lot easier to record and save,” he said. “Improved technology makes a difference.”